You’ve tried regular gyms, and they just don’t work for you. You’ve been away from exercise. You just can’t seem to “do it yourself”. You want to exercise, but don’t have the time. You are not sure how to use all those machines. You have safety concerns. You have injuries or health concerns that prevent you from participating in regular aerobics or weight training. You are not looking for a fashion show, loud music, or a social club. Most important of all, you want results!
No! Strength training is great for women!
Muscular strength is the only productive factor in human movement; all other factors are non-productive (supportive). Increased muscle mass increases your basal metabolism, thus burning more calories each day, even if you do nothing else.
By increasing muscular strength, your connective tissues, and, ultimately, your bones become stronger; otherwise, your stronger muscles would just pull the tendons out of the bones. This makes strength training the only practical method for preventing or rehabilitating osteoporosis.
There is no need for women to fear becoming excessively muscular. Most women will become firmer, not freakier; more shapely, not misshapen. Huge gains in muscle mass are extremely rare in women. Long muscles and large amounts of testosterone are the major factors involved; few women have both or either. to topIs it hard?
SuperSlow is likely the hardest physical work that you will ever do. Bear in mind that you can work out long or you can work out hard, but you can’t work out long and hard. If you tried to, you probably wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for 3 days. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. Proper exercise is based on the muscle and joint functions of the human body, not according to some skills. When properly performed in a clinically-controlled environment, it is extremely demanding. It is also extremely productive.
The heart and lungs are the transport system for nutrients to and waste products from the muscles. The only way to access this transport system is by working the muscles. You cannot perform any activity without using your muscles, whether it be strength training or aerobics. Therefore, if you find the best way to work the muscles (strengthen), you will automatically involve the heart and lungs. They have no choice in the matter! You can get more “cardio” from doing proper strength training than you ever could from any amount of running or aerobics.
Many people focus on target heart rate. Since heart rate can fluctuate due to temperature (being in a sauna), emotional stress (fear or excitement) or drug/alcohol use (stimulants/depressants), it is an unreliable indicator of exercise intensity.
The lungs are over-engineered. They are capable of saturating the blood with oxygen in 1/2 of the total transit time through the lungs at maximum demand. VO2Max (maximum oxygen uptake) has been deemed an almost entirely genetically-dictated variable; therefore, anyone that praises it doesn’t have all the facts.
For many people, the ultimate test of fitness is how far they can run. Remember one thing: the runner who ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news about the Greek War DIED when he reached his destination! For many years, it was thought that running/jogging would save everyone’s hearts. Now all it is proving to have done is ruin knees, backs, and ankles. Witness the different joggers/runners who have dropped dead from heart attacks.
No, aerobics is best for people who want to make a lot of money from unsuspecting patrons who don’t know any better. One instructor can service 30 clients (probably more) at the same time.
Many people have an emotional attachment to involving the heart and lungs in exercise.
My question is: when was the last time your heart and lungs stopped working?
Answer: never! If you were to monitor respiration and heart rate throughout a typical day, you would see it goes up and down all the time. You can not disinvolve your heart and lungs; they are part and parcel with your muscles.
There is a difference between fat loss and weight loss, which is what the infomercials don’t tell you.
One pound of human fat has 3,500 calories in it. Look in any nutritional science book and you will see that a 150 lb. man burns about 100 calories to run a mile. So it would require this man to run 35 miles (probably more) to burn off the equivalent of a pound of fat. I say “equivalent” because so many people assume it would be all fat. Why would it, and where does it say so? The body can also burn muscle, bone and organ tissues. As he got better at running, he would burn fewer calories, because his skill (efficiency) at running would improve.
Assuming the same conversion rate for calories consumed to usable energy (25%, according to one physics professor), a 150 lb. woman would burn the same. Remember that it’s all mechanical work: 150 lbs. moved 1 mile horizontally. You can figure it out with some info from chemistry and physics.
If we assume that this gentleman burned all fat while running, it would have taken him over a month to burn off one pound (assuming he ran one mile a day). Compare this with adding muscle to his body. Muscle uses 50-100 calories/lb./day just to keep it alive and functioning. Put on 10 lbs. and basal metabolic rate goes up 500-1000 calories/day. You could burn off 1 lb. of fat in as little as 3.5 days.
The other factor to consider is: how much potential for injury was he exposing himself to by running those 35+ miles?
High-force/overuse injuries to a multitude of body parts, not to mention the possibility of falling, compared with increasing resistance to injury through proper exercise, strengthening, enhancing flexibility, etc. Lots of running (or aerobics-type activities) will greatly reduce, stop, or reverse any improvements from strength training, due to the depletion of the resources in the human body that enable you to recover and get stronger/fitter from proper exercise.
Heart rate: It takes several minutes for it to increase to its required working rate. Also, heart rate goes up and down all day long, so elevating it for a little while is no problem. The heart is meant to beat from before we’re born until after we die (sometimes).
Joint lubrication: The joints are already lubricated, otherwise, when we moved from a standstill, our knees would grind (or whatever joint is used). Also, the only way to lubricate joints more is to squeeze the synovial capsules in them. This is accomplished by loading the joint. No amount of unloaded, non-descript activity will do it. The same applies to the muscles and their sheathes.
Body temperature: The body (meaning the muscles) are already at least body temperature. If you get much warmer, you start to sweat. This is your body’s cooling system. If you cool down, you shiver, which is muscle contractions generating heat to warm you. Your body wants to operate within a very narrow temperature range. Even if you raised your temp. 10%, you could die from heat stroke if it were maintained.
Blood flow: Blood flow increases with exercise, but there is already blood flowing through the muscles. Otherwise, they would turn gangrenous and have to be amputated.
Generally, you will need more sessions at the beginning to learn to use the SuperSlow method and find what weights you require. A usual pattern is three workouts the first week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for example, and twice the second week. These are for learning purposes, initial set-up and familiarization with the equipment and protocol. After that — work out once a week.